A quick hop over the border: Strasbourg

... Except there is no real border anymore when you cross over from Germany into France, only a sign saying: “ You now entered France and that the speed limit is 120 km/h on motorways and 90 on national roads. Strasbourg is merely 50 minutes away from where we were staying in Baden- Baden and well worth a visit. In fact, Alsace is one of my favorite destinations for quick day visits. The best time to avoid huge crowds that are almost always present, is when summer school holidays are over in September. Truth be told that the month of October is indeed the best for gourmet travelers because the first fresh wines are available, all types of venison and mushrooms.

 

The whole region is well renowned and loved for its quaint, picturesque and medieval towns, dotted with timber framed houses which all seem to have an abundance of window boxes with flowers spilling out. Whether you drive to Riquewihr, Kaysersberg (birthplace of Albert Schweitzer), Obernai or Colmar ─ you are always in for a treat. The year before, our choice was Colmar, my all-time favorite, smaller than Strasbourg but with equally big crowds of tourists vying for sightseeing spots and restaurant tables.

Since my hubby had not seen the capital of the Alsace region and the seat of the European Parliament as well as the European Court of Human Rights. The city’s population has almost doubled in the last decade, with the greater urban area now comprising just under 1 million inhabitants.

The adjacent area to the northwest covers the magnificent natural park and mountain region of the “Vosges”, an ideal location for hikers, bikers and nature lovers. You will find fewer tourists there. I spent a whole week during my college years on a very isolated but romantic “gite”, i.e. a cottage.

We had tried to find home swapping partners on the French site, in vain. We almost made a deal, i.e. signed the exchange contract, when the French found out that it’s likely to be very hot in Florida in the month of August. Indeed. Though there are many picturesque towns of a similar nature on the German side of the border, the French has a more exotic feel to me, being German. And the food in the restaurants is different, even the baguettes are better…although a bit more expensive. Strasbourg, by the way, is very expensive territory with a normal iceream sundae I enjoy in Germany on a regular basis costing here almost twice as much.

With this being our last excursion of this year’s European stay, we enjoyed every minute in spite of the crowds and took plenty of photos. The weather was only glorious. We wished we could have stayed along the banks of the river Rhine which runs almost all the length of the border between the two countries. We brought home some regional delicacies like “foie gras” and wine. We skipped the pottery that is typical for this region, colorful stoneware, but just too heavy  to bring back on a plane. Hubby and I, both agreed that Colmar had a more intimate feel to it. But now we had “done” the entire Alsace.
All there was left to do after this excursion was pack up or numerous gigantic bags and clean the house we had spent 3 happy weeks in for our departure back to the US.

Siggy Buckley 
FB: Intrepid Home Swappers

Elizabeth Noble: The Way We Were *spoiler content*

I've wanted to review this book for a while, but I was always held back by the fact that I wasn't sure what my opinion was. I read it in about 2 days, and I couldn't put it down. Yet, I felt a sinking disappointment when I finished. I couldn't put my finger on why I didn't like the ending. Did I want Rob and Susannah to end up together? Initially, yes. But, the more the novel progressed, and the more choices I saw them make, the more they went down in my estimation. I started the book rooting for them. Rob, especially. Ask my best friend; I bombarded her with text messages throughout, insisting that Rob was the epitome for men everywhere. But, once he started seeing Susannah again, I wasn't so sure. Some of the decisions he made didn't reflect those of a perfect gentleman.
But, what did I want them to do? In reality, people do have affairs. Sad, but true. And they don't always fall head over heels and leave their current partner. So, why did I expect Rob and Susannah to?
When he turned up at the house in France, I thought, "Brilliant. Whirlwind romance, here we go!" Now, the scenes described in that magical, romantic house did make me weak at the knees and sigh dreamily, but it was short lived, trust me. They decided not to "go all the way" out of respect; they wanted it to be right. "Ok." I told myself, "I admire them for that at least." But, when did they finally find that "right" moment? In Rob and his wife's bed. With the clueless-wife's photograph watching them.
I'll be honest with you, I felt very sick. It invalidated all their prior reasoning. Once Rob's wife decided to forgive him and they attempted to make their marriage work, I closed the book huffing in disappointment. What? No unrealistic, sweep-me-off-my-feet ending? Nope.

So, as I sat sulking for a about a week and a half (whining on the phone to my previously-mentioned best friend, demanding she not give this book the time of day). Why was I so bothered, though? It was a realistic enough ending.  

After staring at the cover, turning the book over in my hands, I realised. I wasn't expecting a realistic ending. I didn't WANT a realistic ending. I didn't pick up a Jodi Picoult novel for that very reason!
The next question I had to ask myself was, why didn't I expect that ending? Why did I automatically assume everything would work out in a beautiful, romantic finale? Let's look at the cover:
Beautiful, isn't it? The swaying branches, soft petal buds, and sweet little birds watch the silhouette couple as they embrace on the bench. Not to mention the cute little heart at the bottom. This cover radiates “innocence” and “romance”. Which is exactly why I picked it up; I was in that kind of mood. But, don't worry, I know better than to judge a book purely on its cover (excuse the cliché), so I read the back.
 The synopsis was all well and good; it described two people who were longing to give love a second chance.
"Has the perfect love each now remembers been given back to them?"
This is just one line from the synopsis. Terribly sorry, but this screams "happy ending" to me.
Let's move onto the recommendations:
"Tissues are essential. You'll ricochet between delicately watering eyes at the romance of it all and howling sobs at the unbearable tenderness." Heat
Sorry, I really am, but there is nothing “tender” about them getting it on in his wife's bed; nothing “tender” about the pathetic ending of the affair.
So, you can see why I was disappointed with the ending. But, up until that? Loved it. I fell in love with the teenage romance of Susannah and Rob, and I fell in love with the irresistible attraction that pulled them together. Elizabeth Noble so eloquently described the sweet flutters of chemistry, and the deep longing of love.
So, in a nutshell, I would definitely read this again.
I'd just stop once they leave France.
Khadijah Stott-Andrew
FB http://www.facebook.com/LastingLilies
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Ever Swapped Homes?

With more dash than cash it's hard to fulfill your traveling needs...Thinking of the top '100 places you should see before you die' always makes my tummy churn and my face green with envy.

After a wonderful but expensive vacation in the Fatherland I had a brainwave. Somewhere and somehow I had heard about swapping homes. Well, on TV families are known to even swap spouses. With a little bit of investigation (thank you Mr. Google!), I found an app for that or rather several websites. Looking at all the beautiful homes worldwide nurtured my travel bug that bit me years ago. He started to grow and make himself heard: If you swap houses with some of these people, you can stay longer. Hey, there is a way to swap cars too. That takes a big load of your pocket book. The bug could no longer be ignored.

Cheap package tours are an option, at least occasionally, but not in our circumstances. Especially if you live in "Paradise" anyway. We want to travel to Europe as much as possible because of family reasons. And hubby loves France and Italy. And his employer is too stubborn to let us relocate and pay for regular trips.

I was all for it immediately.

But: I hear you ask a) Do you want strangers in your house? b) even sleep in your bed? Guess, how many different people share a hotel bed over time? c) What about valuables and personal stuff? Well, lock it away! And if a glass or a vase breaks, or a book gets mislaid...so be it. In any case, people have insurance.

Well, we women can be very persuasive with the right arguments and the right open-minded partner who wants to please his wife who is a long way from home...

That's how it all started. Hey, Europe here we come: The Intrepid Home Swappers! The world is your oyster- if you like oysters. Who knows where we'll go next if this works out?

Being an old hand on dating sites, my experience with a home swapping site took me right back.

As new hopefuls on a home exchange website, my hubby and I enthusiastically put up photos of our house, plus a catchy description together with details about us. We felt like kids in the candy-store: all these great places and houses all around the world up for grabs at the click of a mouse.

We approached desirable potential partners, sometimes we got replies, and sometimes not: “sorry but...or you're too late”. Then we thought we had found the right fit and we started to communicate by email with the prospective swappers.  At the same time we asked a couple of questions about what they were offering on their part. After a bit of research, at last we were ready to commit: “Let’s do it” only to get blown off: We've found somebody else.

It reminds me of Internet dating. After crafting a compelling personal profile, you click though gazillions of pictures and prospects; you wait for responses or actively approach potential partners. You communicate, sometimes slowly; sometimes unexpectedly excited, making quick progress in getting to know the other side. Then boom—you’re blown off and don’t know what hits you. They disappear from the radar or have the courtesy of informing you that they have met somebody else while you were getting your hopes up. Happens all the time. It’s called double timing.

We lost out while trying to cover our backs and avoid being disappointed if things turned out to be different to what they were portrayed to be. 
We are still "virgins" on the home swapping front so to speak, but we learned our lesson: Apparently one has to jump "into bed" here even more quickly than on dating sites.

You can follow our steps for about months on our travels to Germany and France. The first home swap near Frankfurt turned out to be an all-round positive experience. We absolutely loved it and felt totally at home away from home. Our second exchange made me want to scream when we arrived and then take the prefix ‘in’ out of Intrepid Homeswappers. The location, however, was hard to beat and even the lack of good weather wasn’t that important once you see the sights of Paris.

The topic solicited even more interest with the local media than my book on dating, i.e. the interview with NPR will concentrate on this adventure, yet still plug my book I was promised.

For us it was a great, invaluable experience. We were drawn out our comfort zone, left the rut of daily routine in the US, and managed to enjoy ourselves even though my husband was working for five out of the seven weeks. While we’re still unpacking our six enormous suitcases -68lb.each-, plans for next year are being hatched and little safeguards discussed in order to guarantee an even better exchange next time.

Siggy Buckley